Anglesey Abbey

Anglesey Abbey

Anglesey Abbey is the creation of the immensely wealthy Huttleston Broughton, the 1st Lord Fairhaven, whose father had made a fortune in mining and railways in the United States. Originally a 13th-century Augustinian priory, it was first converted into a manor house in c. 1600 and then extensively remodelled and extended between 1926-58 by Sydney Parvin and Albert Richardson. Inside, this elegant yet comfortable Jacobean style home contains a mixture of medieval vaulting, low, beamed rooms and airy, light spaces. Many decorative features were reproduced or brought in from other buildings, including early 17th-century panelling and a 16th-century strapwork chimneypiece. Lord Fairhaven also devised the 100-acre garden which blends formal and more naturalistic landscape styles.

Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire (Accredited Museum)

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Anglesey Abbey contains rich collections of furniture, silver, paintings, porcelain, tapestries and statuary, all assembled by the immensely wealthy Lord Fairhaven. Buying at a time when many country houses were being demolished and their collections dispersed at auction, Lord Fairhaven was able to amass his extensive collection. There is a set of Tudor royal portraits, in cluding the earliest known likeness of Henry VIII; works by Claude Lorrain, Gainsborough, William Etty; late 18th- and early 19th-century English and French clocks; early (17th-century) and modern bronzes; and a collection of early colour-plate books, 1770-1820.

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